Israeli officials on Sunday, 15 Jan. 2017 credited the efforts of the National Security Council and the Foreign Ministry for a "significant weakening” of the text of the final joint declaration issued by the participants of a peace conference in Paris. The one-day summit came to a close on Sunday evening with a statement, backed by the 70 countries, calling on Israel and the Palestinians to restate their commitment to a peace settlement and to refrain from unilateral actions. The statement urged both sides to "officially restate their commitment to the two-state solution” and disassociate from voices that reject that goal. It also called for them not to take one-sided actions that could preclude fruitful talks. The Israeli officials were jubilant that "problematic passages” in a contentious recent UN Security Council resolution on the settlements were not included in the Paris document. Resolution 2334, passed on 23 December 2017 harshly condemned the settlement enterprise, declaring that it has "no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-state solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace.”

Furthermore, the Israeli officials expressed satisfaction over the fact that no further action against Israeli settlements is planned at the Security Council. USA Secretary of State John Kerry had promised as much to P M Netanyahu in a phone call from Paris earlier Sunday. The ostensible success, the officials concluded, was the "result of harsh reactions” voiced by Israel against Resolution 2334. In his call to Netanyahu from the Paris conference, Kerry promised to prevent any followup action to the resolution, either at the confab itself or at the UN Security Council. After a month of chilly ties between Washington and Jerusalem, Kerry updated Netanyahu about the steps he was taking to "soften” the text of the final communique. The prime minister told Kerry that the outgoing administration had already caused Israel damage last month by not vetoing Resolution 2334. No other resolution should be passed, Netanyahu said, either in New York or in Paris. As the multinational conference convened in Paris, Netanyahu again dismissed the French initiative, calling it a "pointless” endeavor that was inherently anti-Israel. (Times Of Israel) God has answered prayer and gratitude for His intervention is deeply felt by so many who have prayed and raised their voices against a further display of anti-Israel bias on the part of the nations at Sunday’s Paris Peace Summit. Please continue to intercede against any unforeseen UN or out-going Obama administration surprises that would harm Israel this month. [Comment]

: Israel on 11 Jan. 2017, announced new charges against the Gaza head of a major USA-based NGO accused of diverting millions of dollars in aid to Hamas. Mohammed al-Halabi, the Gaza director of Christian humanitarian charity World Vision, is alleged to have funneled aid money to the Islamist terrorist movement that runs the Gaza Strip. He was due to appear in court again in the city of Beersheva this week. On 11 Jan. 2017 a charge sheet was published with two additional charges, including "aiding and abetting the enemy in a time of war" and "passing information to the enemy." (Arutz-7) [Comment]

The USA Government Accountability Office (GAO) announced that it would begin its official investigation into the ties between UNRWA and terrorist organizations and incitement in official Palestinian Authority textbooks after President-elect Donald Trump takes office on 20 Jan. 2017. The GAO is the supreme audit institution of the USA government and provides auditing, evaluation, and investigative services for Congress. The investigation was requested by Senator James Risch (R-Idaho), the Chairman of the Senate Near East Subcommittee, following briefings on UNRWA's indiscretions to Congress by the Center for Near East Policy Research over the past few years. The USA provides approximately $400 million in finding to UNRWA each year, which amounts to one third of UNRWA's annual budget. The organization serves the Arab refugees of the 1948 War of Independence and their descendants, proving education, health care, employment, and other services. Repeated investigations by the Center for Near East Policy Research have shown that the textbooks used in UNRWA schools preach hatred of the State of Israel and the Jewish people. Investigations have also found that members of the Hamas terrorist organization are employed by UNRWA in various capacities, including as teachers. (Arutz-7) [Comment]

The widow of the terrorist who committed Sunday’s8 Jan. 2017, truck-ramming attack in Jerusalem, killing four Israeli soldiers and wounding another 15, will receive a lifetime monthly stipend as a reward for her husband’s "martyrdom for Allah,” a prominent research organization reported on 11 Jan. 2017. Fadi al-Qanbar’s widow, a resident of east Jerusalem, will receive a total of NIS 2,900 (approximately $760) each month, in accordance with Palestinian Authority law. All families of "martyrs” receive a base monthly payment of NIS 1,400 ($365). Widows of "martyrs” receive an additional NIS 400 ($104). NIS 200 ($52) is paid for each of their children; al-Qanbar has four. And Jerusalem residents, such as al-Qanbar, receive an extra NIS 300 ($78). In addition, within the next few months, al-Qanbar’s widow will receive a one-time grant of NIS 6,000 ($1,580).

In October 2016, USA Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Dan Coats (R-IN) and Roy Blunt (R-MO) introduced the Taylor Force Act - named after the American military veteran who was stabbed to death in Tel Aviv in March 2016 by a Palestinian terrorist - which would cut off funding to the PA if it continues its policy of dispensing monetary rewards for terrorism. In an editorial the following month, the Wall Street Journal called on the incoming Trump administration to "send a powerful message” and back the bill, stating: "The truth is these payments are blood-soaked gifts from a Palestinian leadership still devoted more to destroying Israel than to building a Palestinian state.” This week’s truck-ramming attack - for which al-Qanbar’s family will receive a monetary award - was the most serious of the latest acts of violence against Israelis in the Palestinian terror wave that began in September 2015. Commonly known as the "lone-wolf” or "knife” intifada, it has been characterized by stabbings, car-rammings, Molotov-cocktail throwing and arson. (Algemeiner) Pray that the shameful practice of rewarding the families of terrorists who undertake to wound and murder innocent Israelis will brought to a halt and that Western governments that fund - with taxpayers money - the Palestinian Authority will cease to do so. [Comment]

 Just three days before foreign ministers from 70 different countries are set to descend upon Paris for a conference aimed at solving the Israel-Palestinian conflict, PM Netanyahu said "there are more attempts to destroy any attempt at peace, and one of these attempts will be happening in Paris. It's a conference rigged by the Palestinians with French auspices to adopt additional anti-Israel stances. This pushes peace backwards," Netanyahu continued. The prime minister then said that "this conference is not going to obligate us. It's a relic of the past, it's a last gasp of the past before the future sets in." Meanwhile, French President Francois Hollande said that talks to discuss the Middle East peace process in Paris on Sunday 15 Jan. 2017 do not aim to replace bilateral negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. Israel is concerned that whatever text is passed during the conference will be then put to a vote at the UN Security Council during a meeting set to be held on the Middle East two days after the Paris conference. After the USA stated that they will veto any anti-Israel resolution, it seems the French will try and present a proposal worded in such a way that it will be signed by all of the members of the UN Security Council. (Ynet) Intercede that there will be no further treachery against Israel on the part of outgoing USA President Obama or his administration and that any text passed during the Paris Peace conference that is detrimental to the Jewish State will not be put to a vote at the 17 Jan. 2017, UN Security Council meeting. Obama cannot be trusted to refrain from one last parting shot at Israel for who is has made it obvious he has a great deal of contempt. [Comment]

USA Secretary of State John Kerry will attend a Middle East peace conference in Paris on Sunday 15 Jan. 2017 in a move likely to dismay an already angry Israel. Neither Israel nor the Palestinian leadership will attend the talks, and PM Benjamin Netanyahu has said the meeting will only widen the gaps between Israel and the Palestinians. Just weeks after the UN Security Council voted to condemn Israeli settlement building, the talks are meant to underline global support for a two-state peace deal. Washington abstained on the UN vote rather than casting its usual veto, and last month Kerry made a major speech laying out proposed parameters of a two-state solution. Netanyahu insists that outside powers cannot impose a settlement on Israel and the Palestinians and has called for direct talks between the parties.

Around 70 countries will gather for the conference and they are expected to throw their weight behind calls for a halt to settlement building and a negotiated peace. France has been planning to hold a conference for months, but Washington had refused until 10 Jan. 2017 to confirm that its top diplomat would attend. Diplomats have played down rumors the foreign envoys could draft a new UN resolution to codify plans for two states in international law. Sunday’s stop in Paris, at a conference chaired by President Francois Hollande, will come halfway through Kerry’s last foreign trip as secretary of state. (Times of Israel) Pray that global leaders, will understand there is absolutely zero chance Israel is going to comply with any plan for a future Palestinian state based on pre-1967 lines. It is a ludicrous objective, one which a long line of Israeli government and military leaders have considered to be "suicidal,” for the Jewish state.

Don't rush it

Make it part of your daily routine

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 Following the lead of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah leadership has announced their intention to start a new intifada if USA President-elect Donald Trump follows through on his promise to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. According to MEMRI, Fatah Central Committee member Sultan Abu al-Einein said on Alghad TV, "I believe that any American act of stupidity will ignite the Palestinian territories. We must prepare for a confrontation with the new USA administration, which has clearly and audaciously declared that Israel and its settlements are legitimate and legal." He also blamed his threat on Israeli "arrogance" and "settlement activity," claiming both Israel and the USA would "bear responsibility for the return of bloodshed in the Palestinian territories." (MEMRI) [Comment]

 Israel is not the biggest problem in the Middle East, by a long shot. But you wouldn't know that from the disproportionate way in which the UN has treated the country. To this day, 47 resolutions concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have been adopted by the UN Security Council. In 2016 alone, 18 resolutions against Israel were adopted at the UN General Assembly in September, and 12 resolutions were adopted in the Human Rights Council. There is nothing unique about the Israel conflict deserving such disproportionate attention. Baluchistan, Kurdistan, Cyprus, Kashmir, and Taiwan are but a few other disputed territories not fetishized like Palestine is at the UN and in our media. All of these disputes involve deep religious, historic, and political meaning for their respective parties.

Why is it that Israel is expected to integrate - and does a reasonable job of including - the 20% of its population that is Arab, yet a Jewish presence of 500,000 settlers in any future Palestinian state is deemed "an obstacle" to the two-state solution? [Not one Jew, according to peace conditions set up by Palestinian Authority is to remain or be allowed to live in land ceded to the Palestinians in any final agreement. Right now, over a million Arabs live inside Israel.] Are Palestinians assumed to be ethno-fascists? Are they not capable of building a multi-ethnic state just like Israelis? Is this how low the standard is to which the West holds Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims? In reality, Israel has been the perennial excuse used by Arab despots seeking to silence their domestic opponents or the foreign critics of their ferocious repression. To call for greater freedoms in these countries where there was little or none was to be accused of "Zionist collusion." (Daily Beast)